Bach: English Suites, BWV 806-11 / András Schiff

This CD is reissued by ArkivMusic.

Notes and Editorial Reviews

...I must then say that I prefer Schiff on the English Suites... [He] achieve[s] a sense of freedom while staying very much in view of the score; [his] pianism illuminates aspects of the music in ways that the harpsichord cannot.

-- Paul Shoemaker, MusicWeb International

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With Glenn Gould's untimely death in 1982, the time was ripe for András Schiff's formidable gifts as a Bach interpreter to garner international attention--and rightfully so. Although Schiff admired and was influenced by Gould, he approaches Bach on the piano quite differently. For instance, Schiff's warm, luminous tone contrasts with Gould's gaunt, stripped-down sonority, drawing inspiration from the grandeur and Read more flexibility of tempo that typifies Bach performances from pianists such as Edwin Fischer and Miecyslaw Horszowski. At the same time, Schiff always has kept up with the latest scholarship in regard to embellishment and articulation. As you listen to Schiff in the Partitas, English Suites, French Suites, and the B minor French Overture, you can't help but notice both the way the pianist's tempos accurately pinpoint the music's dance origins and the improvisatory feeling with which he imbues the ornaments on the repeats.

-- Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com
reviewing the box set of Schiff's Bach recordings, Decca 452279
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